Where I Belong
by 2Kay7
Summary: No one in Ryoma's family ever paid attention to him. Not his cousin, not his brother; hell, not even his own parents. The only thing they ever cared about was tennis and they put their hopes and dreams onto Ryoga to become the world's best tennis player. Will still become the prince of tennis? Read to see what happens! NO ROMANCE! Sorry if summary sucked, but please give it a try.


Summary - No one in Ryoma's family ever paid attention to him. Not his cousin, not his brother, hell, not even his own parents. The only thing they ever cared about was tennis and put they're hopes and dreams into Ryoga to become the world's best tennis player. NO ROMANCE, just friendship.

_Echizen Ryoma_- 6 and then 8 years old  
_Echizen Ryoga_- 8 and then 10 years old

**Chapter 1- Becoming the Prince**

_-In a tennis court near the Echizen's house in America-_

"Oi, Ryoga!" Nanjiro called as he finishes their match.

"Nani *pant* Oyaji?!" Ryoga panted on his side of the court.

"I'll be showing you how to do a twist serve only once. I want you to try to mimic it based on what you've seen. Just a heads up though, I won't show it to you again nor help you with it, so pay attention." Nanjiro explained.

"Hai, hai." Ryoga said as he watched Nanjiro showed him his twist serve.

"Did you get that, Ryoga?" Nanjiro called once he finished showing Ryoga the serve. Nanjiro received a nod from Ryoga. "Well then, let's go back home. I'm hungry." Nanjiro said as they headed back home. Little did they know they Ryoma was watching them the whole entire time they were practicing with a tennis racket in his hand...

* * *

'Why do they only pay attention to Oniichan?' Ryoma thought to himself while he watched Nanjiro and Ryoga walked back home. 'Maybe if I become good at tennis just like Oniichan is, they'll pay attention to me too!' Ryoma positively thought to himself as he began to practice more on his own.

Ryoma began by hitting the tennis ball against the wall. Since he's been practicing for two years already on his own (which means he started to play tennis when he was only four years old), he had good control over the ball. He then decided to take it a step up and close his eyes, just like how he saw Nanjiro do it when he played tennis with Ryoga sometimes.

At first, he found it practically impossible to do, since he couldn't see the ball. Then he remembered the advice Nanjiro gave to Ryoga once.

**FLASHBACK BEGINS**

"Remember Ryoga," Nanjiro began, "there are some cases where some tennis players' balls are too fast to see. Do you know what to do when you face those kinds of players?" Ryoga shook his head. "Well, just like how you can see a tennis ball coming, you can also hear them. Try to focus on the sound the tennis ball makes when it hits the ground on your side and react accordingly." Nanjiro said.

**FLASHBACK ENDS**

'That's right.' Ryoma thought to himself. 'Just focus on the sound of the tennis ball.' Ryoma hit the tennis ball against the wall and closed his eyes. He heard the first thump, 'That's just the sound of the tennis ball hitting the wall.' Ryoma thought to himself. Then he heard the second thump, which came from his right side. 'Now!' Ryoma thought as he tried to hit the ball. Instead of hitting the ball with his racket though, the ball hit him. The other weird part was the ball hit him before he swung the racket that was in his left hand.

'Well now,' Ryoma thought to himself, 'it looks like I need to learn how to judge the distances of the ball to myself.' Then he added, 'I think I also need to get faster.' Ryoma thought as he remembered the ball hitting him before he even swung his racket. 'Perhaps learning how to play with my right hand will help with getting faster too.' Ryoma nodded to himself as he began practicing once again; but this time, focusing on those areas he found he needed to improve in. He also kept the twist serve that he saw Nanjiro do to the back of his mind so that he would remember to try it out when he gets a bit better at doing the basics.

* * *

_-Two years later-_

Ryoma gave up on trying to impress his parents with tennis so that they would start to pay attention to him some time ago. He didn't even know exactly when he gave up. No matter how many times he accomplished to try to get their attention even if it was for a brief moment, they never even batted an eyelash at him. Not when he became the smartest kid in his grade, nor when he won the tennis tournament that Ryoga lost in (which was the Under-14 tournament for the city they were in). Hell, he doesn't even think that they knew he participated in it even though he told them multiple times.

Over the past couple of years, the openly happy and bubbly Ryoma that everyone knew (excepting his family of course) became a loner. Yes, he still smiled and all but only to those who knew him well and were close to him (again, not his family). As time passed by, his infectious smiles became more and more rare to see. He began to protect himself under an emotionless mask he began to wear from the emotional pain he received from his parents, knowing that he didn't mean anything to them; nothing at all.

That doesn't mean that he stopped playing tennis, though. It was during those hard times of his life that tennis was there to support him and get his mind off of his troubles. He eventually fell in love with the sport, not that he'd ever tell his family that. In fact, now he'd rather die than tell his family he likes and could play tennis. It became his little secret now.

Currently, he was practicing. Just like 2 years ago, he was hitting a tennis ball against the wall. The only difference though is that now, he's doing it with both of his eyes closed and hitting the ball with his right hand, not his left. He was doing all of that with no problem unlike before.

From continuing to watch not only Nanjiro and Ryoga, but also other people and play against them too, he improved exponentially in tennis. From watching other players play tennis, he learned to copy some of their moves and use them as his own. Though he only used their moves against them only if they riled him up or insulted him. Those types of people were the ones who have helped cause the birth of Ryoma's cocky attitude.

The first person he played against was a boy a year or two older than he was, and he won. If he had to be truthful, it wasn't as hard as he thought it would've been. But he kept on playing other kids around that age and still defeated all of them. From there, he tried to play against older kids to get more of a challenge. That was when he won his first tennis competition; the one where Ryoga lost in to another player in the quarter-finals.

Since then, he only made one friend. His name is Kevin Smith. They met in the Under-14 tennis tournament in the finals and of course, Ryoma won. But it was close. They became close friends after that. Ryoma learned from Kevin that he only played tennis to get revenge for his Dad; who it was, not even Kevin knew. On the other hand, Kevin learned how Ryoma's family treated him. Kevin found it unfair and volunteered to go over to Ryoma's house to knock some sense into his family. Ryoma just laughed at that. It was only a few weeks ago that Kevin told Ryoma that his family had to move, but Kevin told him that he'd try to stay in contact with him; which leads us back to current time with Ryoma.

As Ryoma kept on practicing, he was too focused on just the sound of the ball that he almost didn't hear a pair of footsteps coming his way. He dismissed it though in thoughts that that person was just here to practice too or meet up with someone. Though as the footsteps became closer and closer towards Ryoma, Ryoma couldn't help but feel a bit self-conscious. After all, there were a few incidents where some people tried to kidnap/rape him. Though during all of those times, he would be lucky enough to escape, get help from a random bystander, or even get help from the police! Not that his family knew or would care about what happened to him anyways.

He was involved in so much kidnapping and almost rape situations that he began to be acquainted with the police after being saved so many times. The police too began to become attached to Ryoma. They didn't want Ryoma to get hurt if he were to every get into one of those situations again so they began to teach him self-defense moves. Eventually, they became aware about his life at home. They wanted to do something about it, but Ryoma said it was fine. They couldn't take this particular case up with anyone since they didn't have any physical evidence since it wasn't like Ryoma was being abused at home and Ryoma also wasn't willing to talk about him being neglected by his parents to anyone other than them. After trying to convince Ryoma with no avail, they have up.

Anyways, Ryoma began to realize that whoever was there was approaching him so Ryoma decided to take action, not wanting to get kidnapped, assaulted, or both again. With one powerful swing, he hit the ball against the wall then dodged it, with the satisfaction hearing the ball hit whoever was approaching him and an "Ow!" from the said person.

Ryoma turned around to face the man he hit. "Who are you and what do you want from me?" Ryoma demanded. The man looked a bit out of it as he rubbed the spot on his hand where the ball hit. Getting a bit aggravated that the man wasn't answering, Ryoma added, "I won't hesitate on contacting the police if you don't answer. Just to tell you, the police aren't kind to any crimes people do with children, especially me."

The man, snapping out of his pain from stood up with his hands up in the air. "No! I'm not one of those kinds of people!" He denied.

"Really?" Ryoma asked, not really believing him. "Then why were you approaching me?" Ryoma demanded once again.

"Well, that's because I want to scout you." He man answered.

Ryoma blinked a few times then tilted his head. "Scout me? For what?" Ryoma asked incredulously.

"To become a pro in tennis, of course!" The man happily replied, thought he looked like he was about to have a nose bleed. "I saw all of your matches in the tournaments that you joined. I was surprised to see that you never lost a single match in any of those. You have a lot of potential for tennis, you know. With the right training, you could be the world's youngest tennis pro!" The man explained.

"If you saw and know all of that about me, then I'd prefer to stick with my previous assumption: that you're a stalker." Ryoma said.

"B-but it's true! I'm not a stalker!" The man complained.

Ryoma sighed then looked at the man in suspicion. "If you're not a stalker, then who are you?" Ryoma asked, eyes narrowed.

"Ah! Sorry about that! Where were my manners? My name's Leo McGuinter. I'm from the American tennis association. Currently, we're looking for tennis players across America who shows promise and potential in becoming a pro." Leo said.

Ryoma nodded, recognizing the name then matching the name with the face mentally since he's seen the person on TV before.

"So Ryoma, do you want to play pro?" Leo asked.

Ryoma thought for a second. "If I do become a pro, will there be stronger opponents to face?" Ryoma asked.

"Yeah." Leo replied. "In the pro world, that's where the best of the best gather."

"Then I think that I'd like to try it." Ryoma answered. "Although, is it possible to keep it a secret from my family? They... don't really care about me so I don't really see why I should tell them." Ryoma said.

Leo nodded his head.

"Also, is it ok if I don't use my real name too? I don't want them to accidentally see or hear it anywhere." Ryoma asked.

"Sure, that's fine~" Leo answered then paused to think for a moment. "Hmm... I know! From now on, your name on the tennis court will be Prince! The Prince of Tennis!" Leo declared.

"Huh? Why Prince? It's not like I'm a prince or my family's filthy rich, you know." Ryoma asked.

"It's 'cause you look so cute and adorable! Everyone's gonna love you!" Leo squealed as he began to pinch and pull both sides of Ryoma's cheeks. "Not to mention that you're a tennis prodigy, a really strong one at that. Also, you're too young to be a King so it'll have to be Prince!" Leo continued on with a grin on his face.

"Let go! I'll call the police and charge you with child molestation!" Ryoma threatened. Leo though just ignored that threat and continued to pull on Ryoma's cheeks, laughing.

As they went their own separate ways at the end of the day, a very small and quite yet so full of emotion and gratitude "Arigato" could barely be heard coming from Ryoma's mouth, directed towards Leo.

(LINE BREAK)

CHARACTER PROFILE

**Name:** Leo McGuinter

**Age:** 24

**Eye Colour:** Silver-Grey Eyes

**Hair Colour: **

**Height: **6' 4"

**Weight**: 84kg (185 lbs)

**Personality:** A happy go lucky kind of guy. He's a fun guy to be around since he tends to act childish a lot and pull a lot of pranks. On the other hand, he can become very serious when there something serious happens to the people he knows and cares about. He is very protective over the ones he loves and cares about and will stop at nothing to make sure they are safe.

**IN NEED MORE OCs! PLEASE SEND ME A PV OR COMMENT WITH AN OC TO HELP!**


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